I undertake a range of one-off HR projects and flexible retainers for a diverse range of B2B and B2C clients across the UK in Healthcare, Retail, Finance, Manufacturing, Leisure, Environment and Hospitality sectors with turnovers ranging from £500k to £20m. I provide clear concise support to MDs and Directors on strategic projects as well as the full range of onsite HR and employment law issues. Some key achievements include:• Advised on complex disciplinary and grievance matters involving multiple employees avoiding the need for costly tribunal proceedings for a social care company. • Established a new stand-alone HR department, including a full suite of HR policies with an online presence for an environmental company. • Negotiated a Trade Union recognition agreement and subsequent day to day relations for for an environmental company.• Formulated and implemented a new recruitment and selection procedure which reduced recruitment spend by 20% and halved staff turnover in a 6 month period for a construction company.• Renegotiation of casual labour contract as part of competitive tendering process giving a 10% saving on an annual spend of £500k for Leisure Retail company.• Successfully managed the annual pay and re-grading review and co-ordinated a major restructure in the IT Support team as well as handled all day to day HR issues for the Head Office of a major financial services company.

Avensure is a leading HR and Employment Law company offering advice to businesses on strategic and routine issues. I provide HR and employment law advice, coaching, and support (often acting as critical friend) to clients across the UK.. I provide advice in all areas of the business including:• Performance management• Handling disciplinary and grievance issues• Mentoring and supporting the business owner• Setting and amending employee terms and conditions• Managing sickness absence• TUPE • Redundancies• Compromise agreement discussions• Full documentation supportAvensure started out as a client of Colin Barratt Consulting, but they approached me about becoming a permanent member of staff and are currently a part-time role alongside my other consultancy work.

The Group had 3 business divisions employing 800 staff: Opus Mailing, Opus IT and Opus Wine with a Group turnover circa £20m. The challenge was to drive the Group to profitability via a progressive HR agenda. I additionally became responsible for Manufacturing, IT, Client Services, Health and Safety, Quality and Environment issues. Key HR achievements included: • Created Employee Engagement programmes including structured team briefings and engagement forums increasing staff participation and attendance by 20%.• Devised and implemented an annual staff survey programme to measure employee involvement and engagement and identify key internal customer issues. • Introduced a learning, development and mentoring programme which identified internal promotional opportunities for staff and created 10 development opportunities annually. • Introduced an annualised hours system, reducing the overall labour bill by 20%.• Member of the acquisitions team, conducted due diligence and project managed all HR elements. • Managed a major cultural change programme in Group Client Services resulting in a 60% increase in customer satisfaction and providing greater commercial focus and more professional client management. • Established a staff incentive scheme generating business improvements resulting in savings of over £50k. • Introduced a structured recruitment programme improving staff retention and reducing staff turnover by 25%.• Project managed a major restructure generating a saving of 10% of total turnover annually.

Communisis, with £90m turnover and 1000 employees in 5 locations, produce high volume specialist transactional and direct mail for major UK PLCs. My challenge was to establish an HR function for the Group and establish its credibility (promoted from HR Manager). • Led the company’s HR team of 5 and developed workplace HR strategies to support the business plan.• Developed and rolled out a series of Development and Assessment Centres for 50 key managers facilitating a subsequent companywide re-structuring programme.• Led implementation of Company HR Time and Attendance system enabling efficient job costing of labour and more flexible working arrangements.• Devised and implemented a unique industry training and development initiative; ‘The Academy Programme’ with 3 core modules plus bespoke elements for individuals, groups and customers.• Responsible for all relations with the recognised Trade Union on pay, conditions of service and discipline and grievance. Also member of the Employers Federation Regional Board.

I was Personnel and Training Manager for the Premium Business Division. Responsible to the Divisional Director I led the HR and training team providing strategic and hands on HR and training support to the division including the development of new business outlets on greenfield sites.

I was the Regional HR business partner working closely with the Regional Manager and providing full HR and training support to 30 clubs and 750 staff.

The Gala Coral Group (formerly Bass Leisure Plc) is the pre-eminentintegrated betting and gaming group in Europe.It is the only UK operator to offer a full range of online and offline gambling opportunities in the UK – Coral, Gala Bingo clubs and Gala Casinos. Bass Leisure owned 200 licensed gaming & social clubs with 6,000 staff. I was the Head Office based Training Officer responsible for the Nationwide Management recruitment and training programme.